Members of Congress backed away from the latest health care reform efforts over fears that Americans could lose their health insurance plans. But our elected officials are still ignoring the ticking time bomb that’s already in place that stands to cause as many as 13 million Texans to lose their coverage, or face much higher premiums for worse health insurance.

In 2020, when Obamacare’s “Cadillac tax” on health insurance takes effect, almost every Texas resident insured by employer- and union-provided health insurance plans will feel the pinch. While the wealthy were supposed to be hit the hardest by the tax, it’s minivan moms and the working poor who will actually bear the brunt of the flawed scheme.

When Congress and former President Obama concocted the idea to tax workplace insurance plans, they set the tax to begin at a threshold they thought would never apply to an average working-class American — $10,800 for individual coverage and $29,050 for a family of four.

Unfortunately, because of increasing health care prices and the skyrocketing cost of insurance premiums, the tax won’t be limited to the rich. Many employer-sponsored health plans easily exceed those price limits.

The Cadillac tax will be especially harmful to Texas because so many state residents rely on their employers for health insurance. Many employers here in Texas, such as Walmart, Dell, BP, Lockheed Martin, Dow Chemical and H-E-B will have to choose between offering worse insurance, cutting pay, and hiking deductibles and co-pays as a result of the tax.

That’s because the Cadillac tax requires employers to pay a suffocating 40 percent tax on every health expense beyond the federal government’s limits. This includes employer and employee contributions to premiums, health savings accounts, medical flex spending accounts and health reimbursement arrangements. Wellness programs and on-site medical clinics are also subject to the 40 percent tax. It’s as if the government doesn’t want Americans to be healthy.

Some employers are already switching to lower-cost plans to avoid the tax before its implementation, so you can imagine the carnage that lies in wait after the hammer drops in 2020.

Women and the working poor will be disproportionately affected. A levy on health insurance plans functions in practice as a tax increase on families of every stripe by increasing out-of-pocket costs and limiting benefits. But don’t take it from me: the former head of Medicare, Marilyn Tavenner, predicts premium increases of $5,000 or more over the 10 years following implementation of the Cadillac tax.

All of this is easily avoided; Congress must use upcoming tax reform efforts to repeal the Cadillac tax. Since the tax would be a scourge on the poor and the ill; harm unions, large corporations and small businesses; and increase health insurance costs and reduce the quality of care for about 180 million Americans, getting rid of the terrible tax should be something lawmakers from both parties should be able to agree on.

Texas’ congressional delegation should demonstrate how much they care for Lone Star State residents by protecting Texans’ health care through leading the charge for a repeal of the Cadillac tax.

Michelle Ray is Publishing Editor at the Independent Journal-Review. The Texas resident also hosts "In Deep with Michelle Ray" on FTR Radio.